USA > New York > Westchester County > Westchester County, New York, during the American Revolution > Part 50
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Having thus disposed of its unwelcome guest, the Provincial Congress appointed John Jay and " Col- "onel a Committee to draft an auswer to the "letter of the Delegates in the Continental Congress," which had been the basis of all the proceedings which are now under consideration ; and it is probable that such an answer; conveying a copy of the Resolutions, but evidently not one of the Agreement, was sent to the Delegates, on the afternoon of the day on which the Resolutions were adopted, although no mention was made of any such answer in the Journal of the Provincial Congress-the files of that body, however, contain a letter from the Delegates, dated on the sev- enteenth of June and addressed to the President of the Provincial Congress, acknowledging the receipt of two letters, of different dates, in one of which "the "sentiments of the Hon. the Convention relative to " the important subject on which we thought it our "duty to ask their opinion," had been transmitted, was duly acknowledged.1
No further action, of any kind, concerning Inde- pendence, was taken by the Provincial Congress ; and, guided by the restricted authority expressed on its Credentials and by the Resolutions which are now under consideration, without having been told of the treacherous Agreement, the Delegation in the Conti- nental Congress continued to withhokl the assent of New York to the Resolution of Independence, adopted by that body, on the second of July, and to the Declaration which it approved, two days afterwards.
During the very brief period of the existence of the third Provincial Congress, besides those general enactments in which its conservative farmers were more than ordinarily interested, Westchester-county was, sometimes, made the especial object of the
I Francis Levis, Robert B. Livingston, Joka Hoop. William Played, and Henry Wisner to How, Nathaniel Woodhull, President, . t., " PHILADELPHIA, "17 June, 1776."
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attentions of that body. Au instance of that class of special doings may be seen in the Order which was made by the Provincial Congress, on the twenty-first of May, in these words: "ORDERED, That Colonel " Ritzema send such prudent Officer as he shall think " proper, to Westchester-county, to apply to the "Chairman of the County Committee and to the re- " spective Sub-committees, in that County, for such "good Arms, fit for soldiers' use, as they may have "collected by disarming disaffected persons, in that "County ; and the respective Committees are hereby "requested to deliver such of those Arms as are fit "for the Army, to such Officer, taking and preserving " his receipts for the same : that the said Committees, "respectively, take care that all such Arms be "appraised, and an account of the value of each kept "agreeable to the directions heretofore given for that " purpose ; and such Officer as Colonel Ritzema shall " send to collect those Arms is hereby directed to de- " liver all such Arnis as he shall so receive, to Colonel "Curtenius, that they may be repaired, where it may " be necessary." 1
It is not now known how many Arms were thustrans- ferred to the Provincial Storekeeper ; nor from whom they had been impressed; nor what disposition was subsequently made of them. But, because the Third Regiment of the New York Line in the Continental Army, which was commanded by Colonel Ritzema, was one of those, under General Alexander McDougal, who were engaged with the Royal Army, on Chatter- ton's Hill, a few months afterwards, and because Colonel Ritzema's Regiment was undoubtedly sup- plied with Arms, as far as they went, from those which had been "impressed " in Westchester-county and were thus called in-although the Provincial Congress had disallowed the Resolution of the Com- mittee of Safety, under which these Arms had been forcibly taken from their respective owners, it will be seen that the Arms which had been thus seized were not returned to those from whom they had been taken -- there was evidently a master-hand so skilfully direct- ing the progress of events that those Arms which had been thus violently and illegally and wrongly taken from the farmers of Westchester-county were taken back to that County, to be employed in the defense of it, against the assaults of the common enemy.
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On the twenty-ninth of May, Colonel Thomas Thomas informed the Provincial Congress that Elijah Hunter, who had been Second Lieutenant in Captain Mills's Company, from Bedford, during the Campaign of 1775,2 and who was a member of the County Com- mittee of 1776-77,3 representing that Town, was desir- ous of raising a Grenadier Company, to be attached to the Regiment of Westchester-county Militia, of
which Thomas was the Colonel; and it was intended that. of theart Company. Elijab Hunter should be che Captain ; ' Richard Sackett, the First Lieutenant ; . Silas Miller, the Second Lieutenant ; 3 and Jeremiah Loun-berry the Ensign.5 The Colonel also solicited Commissions for all these aspirants to official author- ity, although there was not the slightest pretense that a single Private had been enlisted; and, of cour-e. since a Thomas had made the request, the Commis- sions were "immediately issued to those gentlemen.""
On the first of June 1776, the Continental Con- gress made a requisition for six thousand men from the Colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Con- necticut, and New York, " to be employed to reinforce " the Army in Canada and to keep up the communi- "cation with that Province; "; on the third of June, a second requisition was made, by the same Congress, for thirteen thousand, eight hundred men from the Colonies of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, "to be employed to reinforce the " Army at New York; "> the eleven Battalions al- ready " raised and ordered to be raised for the protec- "tion of the four New England Colonies," were declared to be "sufficient," for that purpose ; " and a third requisition was also made for ten thousand men from the Colonies of Pennsylvania, Delaware, aud Maryland, "for a Flying Camp, to be immediately "established in the Middle Colonies." 19
Of these several requisitions, one Battalion of seven hundred and fifty men was called from the Colony of New York, for the Canadian service; 11 and for the reinforcement of the Army at New York, that Colony was required to furnish three thousand men.12 All were to be taken from the Militia of the respective Colonies ; all were to be "engaged " only " to the first " day of December next, unless sooner discharged by "Congress ; " and the pay of the men was to commence on the days on which they respectively left their homes.13
4 Elijah Hunter was evidently an ambitious man. In addition to the Commission, referred to in the text, he managed, on the twenty first of November, 1776, to obtain the command of the Sixth Company ot the Second, or Van Cortlandt's, Regiment of the New York Line, in the Continental Army of 1776-19, OHsorient Montering, etc .: Mary C. mitter. xxx., Tbl ;) and he retired from the service, fifteen days afterwards, (Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Military Committee, ANV., Sol, BAH, KANN., 321;) contenting himself, thenceforth, as we shall see, hereafter, with hankering after authority to contime the persecution of his parefnl neighbors, which Ezekiel Hawley had previously failed to secure. (Vide pages 174-177, oude.)
s of Richard Sackett, Silas Miller, And Jeremiah Lounsberry no other mention Juan this appears to have lived made, on the military records of the Colony or State. It is probable they were stars of the small. . t magnitude.
6 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A.M., May "29, 1776."
i Journal of the Continental Congress, "Saturday, June 1, 1776."
& The same, " Monday, June 3, 1776."
9 Ibid.
10 1 bid.
11 Journed of the Continental Congress, " Saturday, June 1, 1776." 12 The same, " Monday, June 3, 1776 " 13 11.1.1.
1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Die Martis, 10 ho., A.M., May 21, " 1776."
2 Vile pages 100, 101, ante.
3 Members of a Committee for Westchester county-Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Miscellaneous Papers, xxxviii., 309.
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WESTCHESTER COUNTY.
Of the nine Provincial Brigadier-general- which iod, while neither pay nor emoluments were derivable these requisition would bring into the service, men- from them, it is very evident that that Brigadier- assigned to the Colony of New York ; ' and, as will be : general and that Major of Brigade became a " neces- seen, hereafter, a lively canvass for the place was im- mediately commenced by John Morin Scott, of the City of New York, and by the President of the Pro- vincial Congress, Brigadier-general Nathaniel Wood- hull, of Suffolk.
These several requisitions, with an elaborate appeal laid before the Provincial Congress of New York, on the morning of the seventh of June; 2 and on the afternoon of the same day, a Committee who had been appointed for the purpose, during the morning ses- sion, made a Report, apportioning the requisitions which had been made by the Continental Congress on the Colony of New York, in due proportions, on the several Counties, the number apportioned to Westchester-county having been three hundred men.3 On the following Sunday afternoon, the levies which had been made on Westchester and Orange counties and Suffolk were ordered to constitute one Battalion ; and, for that Battalion, Westchester-county was ordered to appoint or nominate, one Colonel, four Captains, four First Lieutenants, and four Second Lieutenants.4
Although the Provincial Congress was "of opinion "that the several levies," apportioned on the different Counties, "consisting of volunteers, would be most "advancive of the public service, yet " it evidently knew that volunteers could not be bad, even under such a stress of circumstances as then existed and in so " glorious a canse ; " and drafts from the respective Regiments, in each County, were also provided for, in instances where deficiencies should be found; and every possible measure was employed, to secure the armument and general equipment of the men.5
Information had no sooner been received by the Provincial Congress of New York, that a Brigadier- general was to be appointed by that body, for the command of the four Battalions which were. to be raised in New York, than it was announced "the "Congress conceived it necessary towards carrying "the several Resolutions and requisitions of the "Continental Congress into execution, to appoint a "Brigadier-general and a Major of Brigade of the "Militia of Westchester-county"- the Congress did not reveal in what that declared " necessity" existed, however; and as those offices had been created on the twenty-second of the preceding August 6 and had not been occupied, during the entire intervening per-
"sity," very sudderily, and only when a contingent possibility appeared that they, if they were already in place, might receive the appointments to the new- created offices of the same respective ranks, in the Brigade of Militia which the Continental Congress had called into the service of the Continent, with the social and political influences which they would eer- tainly ensure. Not a moment was lost, therefore- the Congress was not even permitted to refer the letter from the President of the Continental Congress and the exceedingly important enclosures which it covered, to a Committee, for consideration and report -when, with indecent haste, some ready made Cer- tificates which had evidently been kept on hand, ready for immediate use, whenever they should be needed, were laid before the Provincial Congress, showing that, in the opinion of the enlightened County Committee, in Westchester county, Lewis Morris was just the man for a Brigadier-general's command, and that Lewis Morris, Junior, could not be excelled as a Major of Brigade. With such in- telligent judges of military matters and of the re- quirements of those who were to command and handle large bodies of soldiers, as were seen in the rustic Committee of the County of Westchester, 1776-77, and with Gouverneur Morris, the step-brother and unele of the two ambitious Westchesterians, present, and directing the work, how could the Provincial Con- gress do less than to eleet them ? The record says, "the Congress conceive it necessary towards carrying "these Resolutions of the Continental Congress into "execution, to appoint a Brigadier-general and a "Major of Brigade of the Militia of Westchester- "county ; and Lewis Morris, Esqr., being thought the "most proper person for a Brigadier-general of the "Militia of that County,7 and having been recom- "mended by the County Committee, for that pur- " pose, and Lewis Morris, Junior, Esqr., having been "also formerly recommended by the said Committee "for an appointment, to be the Major of Brigade of " the Militia of that County ;
"RESOLVED : That Lewis Morris, Esqr., be ap- "pointed Brigadier-general of the Militia of the "County of Westchester, and that Lewis Morris, "Junr., Esqr., be appointed Major of Brigade of the " Militia of the said County."
The Secretaries were ordered to engross the Com- missions ; and that, properly attested, those Commis- sions be " sent to those gentlemen with all possible
1 Journal of the Continental Congress, " Monday, June 3, 1776."
a Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Friday morning, 9 bo., June i, "1776."
"1776."
3 Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Veneris, 4 ho., P.M., June 7. " Jourand of the Provincial Congress, " Sunday afternoon, June 9, 1776." 5 Ilid.
6 Vide page 102, ante.
T As the Militia Bull which the Provincial Congress had adopted on the twenty second of August, 1725, had massed " the Militias of the Counties "of Duchess and Westchester" [intol "ono other Brigivle, " it would Brem that Duchess-county ought to have been consulted, in this mat- ter; but, very evidently, it was not.
from the President of the Continental Congress, were | honors, the pay, the emoluments, and the increased
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" despatch," 1 although the Offices were only those of the Militia, not in active service and, with a small ex- ception, not likely to be so. The " despatch" was "necessary," however, since a full-fledged Brigadier- general would be a more imposing candidate, when the election should be held for the Brigadier-general of the four Battalions who had been called into the service of the Continent ; and it was not a character- istie of the Morris family to be backward when its own interests required attention and action, at the front. We shall sce, hereafter, how well this well-laid sebeme was counter-schemed by more astute aspirants; how General Lewis Morris reaped all his military honors, what there were of them, in the Militia of Westchester-county ;" and that Brigade-major Lewis Morris, Junior, secured all the laurels which he possessed, as an Aide of General Greene, a place for which he was indebted to the personal favor of that Officer.
Two days after the unseemly movement of the Morrises, [June 9, 1776,] the Provincial Congress pro- ceeded to the election of a Brigadier-general for the command of the three thousand men who had been called from the Militia of New York, for the rein- forcement of the Continental Army, under General Washington, who was then in that Colony; but General Lewis Morris, notwithstanding his artful- ness-that species of " art " of which his step-brother, Gouverneur, had written to Mr. Penn, in May, 1774-was not even mentioned-even Westchester- county indicated that he was not a favorite, beyond a known limit; and its Deputation in the Provincial Congress did not pander to his inordinate ambition. The eanvass was, indeed, confined to two candidates, John Morin Scott, of the City of New York, one of that celebrated " triumvirate" of the earlier periods of the Revolution and a lawyer of the highest stand- ing, and " General" 3 Nathaniel Woodhull, of Suffolk, a veteran of the French and Indian War, and, at the time now under notice, President of the Provincial
Congress. The canvass was evidently rondge. : we have already stated. with spirit ; but the intern of the Commit of Westchester, New York, Try .... Charlotte, and Albany, in behalf of Scott, was too great to be overcome by that of the Counties of Orange, Suffolk, Duchess, and Ulster, for Woodhull, the Counties of Richmond, Kings, Queens, Cumber- land, and Gloucester having been absent; and the former was thus elected,' admirably filling the political demand, but not, in the slightest degree, promising to make the Brigade efficient or useful, as soldiers-like other ltwyers, some of them within our acquaintance, the uniform of a General was attractive to him; he secured an office of distinction ; and he continued to ocenpy it, until. on the establishment of the new form of Government, after having been defeated in his canvass for the office of Governor, he was trans- ferred into the more comfortable, if not the more profitable place, of Secretary of State, which he occupied until 1789, and was succeeded by his son, who held the place until 1798.
On the following day, [.June 10, 1776,] the Provin- eial Congress elected the Field-officers of the Regi- ment in which the levies from Westchester-county were to be enrolled ; and Samuel Drake, who was then commanding the skeleton Regiment of Westchester- county Minute-men, in the Continental Service,5 was elected Colonel; John Hulbert, of Suffolk," was eleeted Lieutenant-colonel ; Moses Hetfield, of Or- ange-county, was elected Major.' The Line-officers of the Regiment and the other details of its organiza- tion of the Regiment will be noticed, hereafter.
A matter of particular interest to the inhabitants of Westchester-eounty occurred during the session of the third Provincial Congress ; and it may properly be mentioned in this narrative.
It will be remembered that, on the suggestion of General Lee, a Magazine of Provisions was ordered to be established, in Westchester-county; that the Delegates from that County were authorized to pur- chase, on the account of the Provincial Congress, the Pork and Beef which were desired; that, subsequent- ly, Colonel Gilbert Drake, the Chairman of the County Committee and one of the Deputies from the County, so managed the affair that all the purchases
1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, " Friday morning, 9 ho , June 7, "1776."
2 Bolton said Lewis Morris was "a Brigadier general in the Conti- "rental Army ;" and in his arrangement of the word-, if they mean anything, that he held that Office betore ho way reat to the Continental Congress of 1973, (History of Westchester county, original edition, ii., 312 ; Athe wime, second edition, ii., 428 ; ) Init we find no competent evidence of the truth of the former statement : und evidence is not necessary to show the entire untruth of the latter.
3 Nathaniel Woodhull appears to have been a Colonel of the Suffolk Militia, who was "reconturended or nominated to our Deputies in Pro- "vincial Congress for a Brigauthier-general," by the Committees of the western Towns in Suffolk, in a meeting held at Smithtown, on the sev- enth of September, 1775, (Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Military Returns, xxvi., 216;) but a very careful examination of the Journ de of the Pro- Fincial Congress and of its Committee of Sigely, from that date until the earliest mention of him as a " Brigadier general" which we have seen, has failed to produce the slightest evidence of his election to that or any other military authority, beyond bis Colongley. We incline to the opinion, therefore, that, although he commanded the sutredk and Queens Militia, it was only as the senior Colonel, or Colonel-commandant; and that he was only a "General," " by courtesy," as it was called.
A Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Sunday Morning, June 9, 1776." 5 Ville priges 152-154, ante.
6 It is doubtful if he ever joined the Regiment, (Colme! Henry E. Lic- angston to the Committee of Arrangemed, " FirstKILL, 21 Nov., 1776;") and he resigned, on the ninth of December, 1776, (John Hullet to the Committee of Arrangement, " Fist Kiti, December 9, 1776.")
Willian Goforth, who had served honorably in Canada, was elected to the vacancy, (Minutes of the Committee of Arrangement, " FISHKILL, "Jany 13, 1777 ;") but, in February, he declined to continue iu the place, (Phdip Van Cortlandt to the Committee of Arrangement, "FISHKILL, " Feby. 25, 1777.")
T Moses Hetfield was Captain of the Company of Minute-inen, at Go- when, in September, 1775 ; (Historical Manuscripts, etc .: Military Returns, xxvi., IB,) in February, 1774, he was nominated as First Major of the Regiment of Goshen, the same, xvii., 77;) to which office he was suber- quently appointed, (the same, xxvii., 13.3.)
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of Flour, Beef, and Pork, with all the golden oppor- operations. The Congress declared, as its opinion, tunities for personal profits which were thus afforded. " that Colonel Gilbert brake sustained a loss, which were concentrated in his own hands; that there were, "accrued in receiving and paying out the public "money, in purchasing Pork, by order of the late " Provincial Congress," without, however, assuming the loss referred to; and then it voted the gallant Colonel, " the sum of seventy pounds, as a compensa- "tion for his services, expenses, and commissions, in "purchasing the said Pork, as aforesaid," and leaving him officially "whitewashed," with twenty pounds and what, besides, he had made in the operations, snugly secured in his pocket-book. It was proven, in that instance, that influence was useful, even among " patriot- ; " and the Chairman of Westchester- county's County Committee, in the same instance, found it well to have been a Drake.' consequently, rival purchasing Agent-, by whom and by the shrewd farmers, the prices of those articles were so greatly advanced that the Committee of Safety was constrained to interfere; and that, after the various buyers, on the account of the Congress, had thus secured their several harvests of the official „Innder, the authority was suspended, the Magazine, very soon after, being declared unnecessary ; " and the provisions which had been bought, at high prices, were thrown on the market again, for such prices as, under sich circumstances, could be obtained for them, from the.Contractors and Commissaries of the Continental Army.2 Under the Rules of the Provin- cial Congress, the accounts and the vouchers had to As we have already stated,' the third Provincial Congress was alarmed by theentrance of General Howe into the harbor of New York, and precipitately dis- banded, without a formal adjournment, although it had previously provided for a reassembling of the Deputies, at the Court House, in the White Plains, on the following Tuesday, [July 2, 1776.] As it did not thus resume its work, it ceased to exist; and, whether for good or for evil, the third Provincial Congress and all which it did and all which it failed to do became subjects of history. be audited, before the former could be closed; and Colonel Gilbert Drake, who had endeavored to super- sede his associates, in making the necessary pur- chases, could not produce a sufficient amount of those vouchers to balance his accounts-he had received three thousand pounds, in money; fifty pounds of that sum he could not account for; he was mean enoughi to liesitate, when the missing fifty pounds were officially called for, preferring, rather to go down to posterity, through all time, as a defaulter ; 3 and the matter was laid before the Congress, to be * * * patched np, in some way which would spare him from paying the one hundred and twenty-five dollars, which had disappeared, he did not know how.
The subject was one of those which, by hook or by erook, the Secretaries of the Provincial Congress were apt to pass, without making an official record of them ; and we have found no mention of it, on the Journal of the Provincial. Congress, until a special Committee who had been previously appointed "to "take into consideration the case of Colonel Gilbert " Drake, relative to a loss of fifty pounds he sustained "in receiving and paying out the monies deposited in " his hands, for the purpose of purchasing and laying " up in store a certain quantity of salted Pork, pur- " suant to an Order of the late Provincial Congress," made its report, on the fifteenth of June. In that Report, the facts were duly recited, very much to the depreciation of the vindictive Colonel's manliness, although it recommended that he be allowed for his loss, and that he be also compensated " for his other "services," the latter having been asked for, by no others of the Deputies who had also traversed the County and had made similar purchases and had been contented with what they had respectively made, in the
The latter half of the year 1776 was one of the most eventin! periods in the history of America, if not in that of the entire civilized world ; and in the great drama of political and military events, teeming with immediate interest and with ultimate import- ance, and occupying only that short half-year, Westchester-county, in New York, and those who were, then, within the limits of that ancient County- the peaceful and industrious farmers whose homes were there, as well those strangers, armed or unarmed, who had gone into the County, no matter for what purpose-occupy places which were, then, as con- spicuous as, since the close of that period, they have been well-known, from one extreme of Christendom to the other.
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